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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMARCH 7,2018 CITY OF JEFFERSONVILLE COMMON COUNCIL FINANCE COMMITTEE MEETING March 7, 2018 Committee Members In attendance: Lisa Gill, Ron Ellis, Nathan Samuel Guest: Councilperson Callie Jahn,Vicki Conlin,Ann Langley, Heather Metcalf, Peggy Hardaway and Richard Eklund Call to Order: Councilperson Gill called the meeting to order at 3 p.m. UNFINISHED BUSINESS—none NEW BUSINESS: Mr. Samuel asked to add item "d" under new business. Sanitation/Street—growth A. Joe Hurt—employee application process. Mr. Hurt could not attend. No discussion B. Not-for-Profit Contributions—Ms.Jahn asked for clarification as to special projects request to the Council i.e.Jeff Main Street,JHS, Concert in the Parks, etc. Some of these funds were used out of the gaming line. The Council has several donations/promotions that are solely paid out of it's own line item (i.e.Jeff Main Street; Concert in the Park, City Pride,JNLA). Other small donations/promotions are paid out of Special Projects or Promotions line. The committee agreed that the City should not pay donations out of Tax money—taxpayers only wants city services paid with tax dollars. Maybe look at project based events—not a donation for operating expense. Items should be on the agenda and not added during Councilperson comments. The committee would like all request to be transparent. Too many complaints regarding the appearance of only supporting one school. Discussion—go back to each councilperson given an amount to support their district. $50,000 General; and $20,000 Gaming (Steamboat Nights— $25,000 Edit money). Work with neighborhood committees to review needs. Mr. Samuel offered two options: not give to not-for profits; only use part of gaming funds. In 2019—still only use gaming, and to review how much money to budget. Ms.Jahn suggested again to only accepting request for project or event based with a positive impact on Jeffersonville. Workshops -two a year and make sure to get the word out (May and November). Really don't like to idea of deciding who is selected. Probability is that smaller requests will be filled. Would like to be transparent vs what we are doing now. $75,000 of gaming is given to the Homeless Coalition. Suggested if we do two workshops to use May and October so that claims are processed in correct budget year. Also, suggested only holding the workshop once a year in June/July. Go back to Council to review these thoughts: identify in an ordinance of how we support/don't support not-for-profits; do we need to go back to each Councilperson have a fixed dollar amount to spend in his/her District. Do we want to use an application process to consider request, as well as, setting dollar limits for request? Consider the number of not-for-profits and the amount of work involved for application workshops. And or, if we want to cut off these requests altogether. Ms.Jahn to contact Mr. Wilder regarding the write up of a new ordinance. Ms. Conlin to find ordinance with Special Projects and review the wording. Public Commit: Mr. Eklund—as a taxpayer he sees no difference in gaming revenues and that gaming entities give a lot of monies to organizations. He does not understand why the City should be put in a position to decide and that it is not the job of the City to use tax dollars this way. Ms. Gill followed up stating that she hears from President of Neighborhood Association and Homeowner Association in the community that our taxes should only be support more services not supporting not-for-profits. C. Finance Department- 1. City HSA Contributions to Civilians- Ms. Langley approached the committee to review the HSA contribution to include civilian employees. She reviewed with Mr. Merkley options for employees to ask the Council to review. It is her understanding that police/fire receives a $1,000 a year on January 10th each year to the employee HSA account simply because they are a city employee and it was written into their contracts. Her research shows that only 18 civilian employees enrolled in the HSA plan, which would only cost the city$16,500 per year(13 family @ $1,000 and 5 single @ $700). But after speaking with Ms. Calabro she also understands the city is saving funds because the cost of a HDHP plan vs the PPO is a savings of$1,800 per year for each civilian family plan. (Fire/Police family$800 savings per year) Mr. Samuel would like to have more data to take to the council because he believes this is the direction insurance is going (to HDHP). Ms. Metcalf is to provide data for 35%and 75%of the city moving to HDHP (family/single insurance cost and savings for the city)via e-mail. Include Ms. Calabro and Ms.Jahn. All agreed that more should be done to encourage/teach the savings that come along with HDHP and with the discussion that the employee should save their deductible for future needs. If the Council does allow this change we need to make sure it happens before fall insurance enrollment time. 2. City Retiree Benefits to Civilians- Ms. Metcalf reviewed the additional expense if the city allows current civilian retirees to pay the same insurance cost as current employees (this is already in Fire/Police contract). There is the potential with current numbers that could cost the city$110,448.80 annually. The longevity pay for these civilian employees would stop and could help absorb the expense until longevity expires for all. Current retiree is a minimum of 55+years of age and 20+years of service. Need to understand if Police/Fire can continue on city insurance indefinitely (civilian retiree stop at 65). It is expense for our civilian retirees to continue insurance coverage who have worked all their life and now cannot afford their portion of the insurance premium. Ms. Metcalf is to report this data for the next 5 and 10 years. Mr. Merkley is reviewing the current Ordinance 2004-OR-74. Options discussed—allows civilian retirees same option as Fire/Police which is paying the current rate as full time active employees; change percentage of premium (currently at 40%for civilian retirees) 3. 2018 Tax Rates- Ms. Metcalf presented paperwork for the committee to review our tax rates to neighboring city, and townships; as well as, this year vs last year. 4. Circuit Breaker—Ms. Metcalf also brought paperwork reviewing Circuit Breaker Property Tax Cap Impact information. August 2017 report indicated our max levy should be$4,154.459, while we budgeted $4,330,000 and the January 2018 report shows $3,774,883. This will be the first year the county will be doing the calculating for the levy. Ms. Metcalf will receive another updated number next week but the accurate number will not be available until late December when our actual settlement is received. Ms. Metcalf stated we are still expecting the actual to be less than the $4,330,000. D. Sanitation/Street—growth. Mr. Samuel knows we have added employees to Police/Fire and we are probably going to be asked by Police/Fire to hire more, but we have not looked at Sanitation/Street. Need to be looking into and talking to Commissioner Clark regarding his needs because of the growth in the City. Ms. Gill indicated we will have 500 new house with the new neighborhood. Ms. Gill also indicated that she is hearing we will need two new salt trucks. Ms. Conlin asked that Ms.Jahn also review with Mr. Wilder the 2017 Vendor List which has been revised. Mr. Ellis stated that he will be attending the NLCC Conference in November. Ms. Gill also stated Mr. Zastawny is also planning on attending. Mr. Ellis stated that all councilmembers should go—it is very informative. Motion to adjourn—Mr. Ellis Approved: isa Gill, President Atte Vicki Conlin, Clerk